An interregional partnership will receive tailored support from the European Commission to develop and scale-up joint projects in advanced materials for batteries, under the smart specialisation pilot action for interregional innovation, the EC said on October 8.

Slovenia is leading an effort alongside Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Nouvelle Aquitaine in France, the Spanish regions of Andalucía, Castilla y León, and the Basque Country, as well as Lombardy in Northern Italy, the Commission said.

European Commission Vice-President in charge of the Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič and Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Creţu participated in the launch of an interregional partnership on batteries. The European Battery Alliance is part of our Energy Union Strategy and aims at strengthening clean mobility, fight climate change and reduce dependencies deriving from energy imports.

“The regions are the living labs of our industrial policy. It is therefore excellent to see that the European Battery Alliance is now attracting those set to embrace this modernisation opportunity and join up with their strengths and capabilities,” Šefčovič said, adding that these interregional partnerships will play a crucial part in building a competitive, innovative and sustainable battery value chain in Europe, to capture a market that could grow to €250 billion annually by 2025 onwards.

For her part, Creţu said she hoped this new partnership inspire other regions to think about how they can make the best use of the available EU support for reinforcing the European value chain for batteries in the years to come, including in the next generation of Cohesion Policy programmes, for the 2021-2027.

The pilot will run until the end of 2019 and the partnership will benefit from the support of special teams established within the Commission, involving experts from several thematic departments, but also from external experts on financial modelling, business plans or intellectual property.

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